Scathing letter by Nobel laureate to Yemeni Islah Party

2018-02-04

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Tawakkol Karman, has strongly criticized the General Secretariat of Yemen’s Islamist Islah Party against a backdrop of a decision to freeze her party membership because of Karman’s position opposing the performance of the Arab coalition in Yemen.

Mrs. Karman, in a statement on Facebook today, blamed the party for its decision, indicating that such step has been dictated by Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.

The General Secretariat of the Reform Party has been controlled by those who have largely deviated from the main agenda of the Arab coalition, placing the country’s national unity and territorial integrity in jeopardy, she went on.

She added: "You are the ones who do not represent the party’s general mood that rejects, like other Yemenis, this destructive deviation.”

Do the party's regulations and literature dictate that every member should be subordinated to Riyadh or a slave to Abu Dhabi, she asked sarcastically.

She concluded that Saudi Arabia, along with the UAE, has transformed the legitimacy and the Yemeni parties, especially Islah, into hostages deprived of free will, emphasizing the need to help them to free themselves of dependence.

It is noteworthy that Karman has recently attacked Saudi Arabia and the UAE in several statements, accusing them of seeking to end Yemen’s unity and leading an alliance of aggression against Yemen.